【英语生活】调查：印度人对退休生活最乐观

India topped a list of countries in its hopefulness about retirement, according to a recent report by HSBC of people's expectations about their post-work life.

As many as 78% of Indian respondents said they expected to be better off than their parents when they retire. The next most optimistic people were the Chinese, while the French were the least hopeful, with the vast majority of them answering that they would be less well off than their parents, the annual survey said.

About 74% of Indian respondents also said they felt very or at least partially financially prepared for retirement, again putting it near the top of the list, well above the global average of 56% who feel that way.

The study questioned around 17,000 working people across 17 countries, which included both developed nations like the U.S. and France and emerging economies like Brazil, China and India.

It probably helps that for most Indians, retirement is quite far off (the study noted that optimism about retirement was in inverse proportion to the age of the respondent). While many other countries in the survey are rapidly aging, India, the world's second-most populous nation has a working-age population that is likely to increase for at least the next three decades.

In general, Asians were among the most optimistic people when it came to their outlook on retirement, while developed countries were pessimistic. Respondents in North America and Europe felt that their parents were enjoying 'a golden age of retirement' that is not likely to be repeated, says the report.

One factor that could be contributing toward this pessimism is the difference in household savings rates, says the study. While Indian households save the equivalent of around 35 % of their GDP, U.S. households save only 3.9 % of their GDP.

After the United Arab Emirates, India was the country where people were least likely to expect government help in retirement─only 3% of respondents said they expected a state pension to be their biggest source of income after retirement. China was at the other end of the scale, with 40% expecting to rely on a government pension.

Family plays a much more prominent role in India than the government─both as a source of post-retirement worry and help. Of Indians who said they are worried about coping financially when they stop working, a quarter said they were concerned about supporting parents, putting it near the top of the list of countries who fret about this, just behind China and Singapore.

About 85% of Indians ranked extended family as “very important” or “quite important” to their retirement plans, while about a third said they expected to be living with relatives in their old age.

汇丰（HSBC）近日一项有关世界各国人民对退休后生活预期的报告显示，被调查各国中，印度老百姓对退休后生活最乐观。

Noah Seelam/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images源汇丰（HSBC）的研究表明，亚洲人在退休问题上最为乐观。有高达78%的印度受访者说，他们预计自己退休后的生活会好于父辈。中国人对退休后生活的乐观度仅次于印度人，而法国是老百姓对退休后生活最不乐观的国家，汇丰的调查显示，大多数法国受访者说他们退休后的生活将不及父辈。

还有约74%的印度受访者说，他们为退休后的生活做了充分或至少是部分的财务准备，这使得印度在这项指标上再度位居被调查各国的前几名，远高于56%的全球平均水平。

汇丰此次调查了17个国家的约17,000名工作年龄人口，所调查的国家中既有美国和法国这样的发达国家，也有巴西、中国和印度这样的新兴经济体。

印度在此次调查中获得好名次的一个因素或许是，对大多数印度人来说，退休还是件很遥远的事(调查发现，对退休后生活的乐观度是与受访者的年龄成反比的)。此次被调查的许多其他国家都在经历着迅速的人口老龄化，而世界第二人口大国印度的工作年龄人口预计至少未来30年内还将继续增加。

总体而言，亚洲人属于受访者中对退休后生活最为乐观的，而接受调查的发达国家老百姓对退休后生活则普遍悲观。汇丰的报告说，北美和欧洲的受访者觉得，他们的父辈享受了“退休的黄金时代”，而这种情况在他们自己身上预计不会出现。

研究发现，导致发达国家老百姓对退休后生活感到悲观的一个可能因素是，发达国家的储蓄率较低。印度的家庭储蓄额大约相当于印度国内生产总值（GDP）的35%，而美国的家庭储蓄额只相当于该国GDP的3.9%。

除阿拉伯联合酋长国外，印度是老百姓最不可能指望退休后生活会获得政府帮助的国家，只有3%的印度受访者说他们预计国家养老金会成为他们退休后收入的最大来源。而中国则处在另一个极端，有40%的受访者预计退休后生活会依靠政府发放的养老金。

在印度，无论是作为退休后生活的忧虑还是依靠，家庭都比政府的分量要重得多。在那些担心退休后财务状况的印度受访者中，有四分之一的人说他们担心无力奉养父母，这一比例在被调查的17个国家中仅次于中国和新加坡。

约85%的印度受访者认为大家庭对他们的退休计划“非常重要”或“十分重要”，约三分之一的受访者说他们预计年老后会与亲属们住在一起。